Kung fu panda 2 from the Tigress's POV
by buttercup303
Summary: The master of the tiger style was finding some changes in her. She was ... softening up?
1. Chapter 1

I'm writing this for tigress as I'm such a huge fan of hers. I just couldn't help noticing her expressions in the 2nd movie. Anyways guys, enjoy!

**In the training hall**

I was counting with the others.

'35... Stay focused 37. .'

'How's he doing that with his face?' asked Mantis.

Seriously, _how _was he? It looked like Po was going to make a new record. He'd already broken many old ones.

His cheeks puffed up to bursting point, beyond bursting point, actually. How did he do this? I was staring at him, my mouth open. I'd not seen something both funny and serious together, like this.

He banged his chopstick holding fist on the table, '38... bean buns!' his voice was muffled of course.

Everyone broke out cheering. 'Yes! New record. You monster' someone was saying. I was looking at him and smiling. Again. I'd smiled more in the last few months than I had in my entire life. 'Keep going. Hit forty!' Monkey was saying. I was only half listening. Everything was lively and funny and light hearted with the Panda around. The Hilarious Dragon Warrior, that's what he was.

'You'll never hit forty' said crane, both concern and challenge in his tone.

'You got it, 40! Now I'm going to go to 40' I almost didn't understand what he was saying.

'Do it', I urged him.

'No problem', he loaded both sets of chopsticks with a bean bun each and quickly stuffed them into his overstuffed mouth.

'hummff… hhuuuuummmff…..' trying to close his mouth. He sounded like a real monster. I could almost see some cracks forming in his cheek; was his face going to blow up?

'…' and he closed his mouth!

I couldn't help pumping my fist in victory.

They cheered again 'Yeah!' 'woohoo!'

He was jumping up and down with his hands held up in victory like a kid .

'Well done Po!' Crane had crossed the table and smacked him in the back with his thin but strong wings. The blow made Po to spurt out all the 40 bean buns across the table and at our faces.

My left paw reflexively was up to chin level where I knew two of the dumplings would hit me. They squished down after hitting my paw. 'Your training has paid off' I joked with a smile. Po smiled back at me.

A bell started ringing. 'Oh! Master Shifu…' said Po with the air of one coming back to the ground. 'Gotta go, see you later.'

I kept looking at him and contemplating. I didn't know why I felt compelled to support him in his stupid games. May be because it was all hilarious and it was nice to laugh out at things now and then for a change. I just found him fascinating…I guess. He was amusing, all the time and so, so friendly. It was like I had a friend I'd always wanted and never actually realized.. The five were my comrades, but real friends? No. I knew they found me formidable. Well I was formidable, but that never bothered Po nor stopped him from carrying on with his antiques.

I realized that I had a tender look on my face. An expression I do not remember having ever worn before, except when I am with the little kids. Po _was_ a big little kid.

I smiled. The panda had brought many changes in me. As he reached the door, still walking, he turned around, said, 'you'll save those for me, right?' (The look of worry on his face was genuine) and disappeared.

We were about to return to our training when the palace messenger, zeng, came scampering in through the door.

Author's note: please review and let me know if you liked this. If yes then I'll be seeing you soon. Thanks for reading (:


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews. Here's the next chapter.

**The musicians' village:**

We raced towards the pond were Po was supposedly training with Shifu. We'll be picking him up and heading towards the village. There was a short jump down the cliff which served as a shortcut to the musicians' village.

We had almost reached the lake. I was the fastest. Monkey was following close behind; mantis on his shoulder. Po and Crane had also developed similar technique as Po cannot make a perfect landing. I had been jealous when they'd first started working together. Well not exactly jealous, I just wanted to share some technique with the panda too. Is that jealousy? Soon I'd come up with the "double time strike". Po had sportingly agreed to train on it. We'd got it down to perfection just the previous week.

I knew this wasn't serious. A few kicks and punches and the dogs would be fleeing with their tails between their legs.

…going down! Now show me what you were doing with your feet. I saw you do some sort of fancy footwork' I didn't pay attention to his blabbering. This was training?

'PO! Bandits. Approaching the Musicians' village.' I pointed towards the direction of the village.

'Danger' he said with a frown. Hmmm he was taking this seriously. 'Tell those musicians to start playing some action music because it is ON' he continued pointing towards the village too. He was _so_ not taking this seriously.

He turned to Shifu, who was silently standing on a rock in the lake and listening, and bowed to him 'Don' worry Shifu, I'll master inner peace as soon as I get back'

Shifu bow back at him.

'No snack stops this time,' I didn't know if I was teasing him or telling.

'Ha ha "snack stops" pfft' he blew it off.

I was already running towards the cliff's end when, 'Wait, are you serious?' as asked. He'd grabbed on to Crane's legs and I'd jumped. I couldn't answer, not that I wanted to. I wouldn't be having a witty reply for him.

We were running towards the village

'' was that his war cry? Well it _was _somewhat inspiring.

'Wings of justice!' he shouted and jumped down the second cliff. He was screaming. Man this panda was crazy. I looked around and saw crane swoop down to catch him and give him an easy landing as the rest of us landed beside him. We ran the last few paces for the final jump.

'Yeeeee haa!' he was screaming all the time. All this talking and shouting was a little annoying but kept things from looking too grim.

We had finally reached the musicians' village and had instantly jumped into our usual perfect "furious five form", fists out and ready for the fight!

Wait, it was not perfect.

'Huh?' Po was facing the opposite direction and he was right in the middle.

Realizing this he instantly jumped around to face the right way with a 'ha ha!'

The villagers cheered.

'The dragon warrior!' said a little bunny excitedly.

'The panda? That's impossible' said one of the wolf bandits with an eye-patch. He looked like the chief.

'My fist hungers for justice!' declared Po and I felt the same. A gurgling noise followed his words and I pricked up my ears. That surely was Po's stomach rumbling? We had heard it much too often.

'That… was ..my fist..' he patched up, clearly embarrassed. Uh… I thought, and Mantis took the word right from my mind; 'uh…'he said.

'Get 'em' shouted the chief.

We were running towards them. Po enthusiastically cried, 'Come on!' and we were fighting.

We split up and took on different groups wolves in different directions using different tactics.

I jumped on two, turned around to punch the one attacking from behind and flipped around again to smash another into some of the bells they were stealing. The clanging kind of stung my sensitive cat ears.

The fighting continued. It was weird but the clanging and banging gave out a musical tone; may be it was the metal instruments and also that blind old bunny playing string amidst the fighters.

I was preparing to bash two more; one carrying a sphere, right in front and another, standing behind me.

'Tigress! double time strike!' I heard Po call out and I turned to look at him standing on the roof with more number of opponents than he could manage. But he was still fighting.

In a flash I'd jumped up on the sphere holder, causing him to miss me and sphere the one standing behind me, and using him as a spring board, I was on the roof with Po.

Remembering our training drill, I grabbed Po's hand firmly and easily lifted him off the roof. I then smashed him into the heap of wolves on the roof and with the same swing I smashed him into two more that were climbing up the roof; all the time Po was using his feet to kick at the wolves. Then Po was on his feet. Our paws still gripping each others', he threw me in to the air so that I could do a full split and hit two more wolves in midair. Soon as I landed I threw _him_ into the air and I kicked some more of them. All this happened so rapidly and reflexively.

Just as I thought that was the last of them, I saw a hoard of wolves jump down from a higher building. I grabbed his paw again, swung him around to gain momentum, thinking how his weight was useful in situations like this, and threw him into the air; literally this time. He went flying right at the rain of wolves who had their weapons and teeth out.

'Fists of fury!' he cried, meeting them in midair. In an instant of whirlwind every one of them was on the ground, knocked out. He _was_ good with his fists.

He landed, again with the Crane help and all the five of us ran towards him.

I reached him first. 'Tigress!' He said; with a growl climbed over his shoulder and kicked a wolf. 'Monkey' 'Viper!' Mantis!' …. He continued fighting as did the rest of us.

Suddenly, a wolf howled.

I turned towards the howler; it was the chief. He was howling towards the highest mountain cliff to which the ropes were attached; they were going to haul up the loot. If we didn't stop them the village will be robbed clean!

The bundle of instruments rose to the air; they were hauling them up. One of the bundles screamed 'Help! Help!' It seemed like a pig was trapped in it.

'Crane, go' said Po simultaneously kicking a wolf.

'I'm on it'. Crane was already flying towards the nearest bundle from which the pig was crying out in fright. His wings went stiff and a slipstream of wind slid down his wings as he gathered speed, twirled in the air and cut off the rope attached to the bundle with a swipe of his sharp talons.

The bundle began to fall and the pig screamed even louder.

We ran towards the cliff but Po was already standing there and he jumped

'Whoa!' he reached out and grabbed the bundle of metal.

Viper was close behind. She too jumped and wrapped herself around his thick legs.

Just as her tail was about to be out of reach from the cliff, Monkey jumped, grabbed at it and pulled.

I was the only one on the cliff; Crane was retrieving the stolen bundles of musical instruments. I grabbed at Monkey's tail. The force was too much and it dragged my feet towards the edge. I closed my eyes and pulled with all my might. In a wide arc I had the whole chain of warriors, clinging on to each other and the bundle, swing around and slam on to solid ground; They were safe.

'Is everyone ok?' were Po's first words soon as he landed. I was looking at everyone mostly the five and Po to see if they were hurt. They were fine and so was the rest of the village. They were cheering. I was comforting a pig that seemed to be very much shaken when I heard a growl. Turning around, I saw the wolf chief, the one eyed fellow, climbing up the cliff and coming towards us with his hammer raised.

'I got this' Po reassured me and readied himself for the wolf. But he didn't defend himself. His expression turned from a playful smirk to a look of shock.

He gasped!

'PO!' I ran forward and grabbed his shoulder to pull him away but before I could do so, the wolf smashed him on the face with his hammer. The force of the blow threw him off his feet and his back smacked into me; we both tumbled to the ground.

That was not like him. He was never inattentive. Besides this was a direct strike. He had seen it coming. Why hadn't he retaliated?

'Chew on that tubby!' The chief wolf had already jumped onto the roped bundle and was instantly pulled up. Laughing cruelly, he smacked at the rest of the bundles, scattered around the edge of the cliff, with his hammer on his way up.

I picked myself up as Viper asked concernedly 'Po, are you ok?'

I righted an upside down bunny and asked Po, 'what happened?'

He slowly rubbed his cheek looking confused. 'I think I saw… I think..' and his eyes widened as if he realized something. 'I gotta go' he said frowning suddenly, and he was up and off.

What happed to him? I thought with concern…

Author's note: This was longer than the first chapter. But I felt the need to give every detail. Reviews please!


	3. Chapter 3

Ok. This is not in the movie. This is something, I IMAGINE, happens after the fight.

**The pensive hardcore**

We were back in the Jade palace. I was training with the others. Po hadn't returned with us. He probable went home. I wondered again what had made him so vulnerable like that in front of that wolf. I also felt myself boiling as I remembered the one eyed face with that annoying smirk as he'd hit Po. The hammer had not caused Po any lasting harm but it disturbed me no end.

The carefree easygoing panda had looked seriously disturbed for the first time. He almost never took anything seriously. So what had he seen in that villain that shook him so much. He should be coming back before suppertime and may be I'll… we'll find out then..

We trained till sunset with Viper, Monkey, Mantis and Cane wondering aloud what had stopped Po from stopping the wolf's hammer.

It was suppertime. We washed and walked towards the kitchen, expecting Po to be already there cooking his delicious soup, but to our disappointment he wasn't there. He had never ever been late for _dinner_ before. We finished the tofu and beans prepared by the palace chef; it tasted bland after all those mouthwatering dishes we'd been having for the last few months, prepared by Po. And it was more silent than usual without Po's usual dinnertime jokes and mono acts on the different palace inmates and some people from the valley.

'Maybe he's not coming back tonight' suggested Monkey.

'Yeah. He did have a weird look on his face after the fight today, may be that hammer broke one of his molars' guessed Crane, a slight hint of sarcasm in his tone.

I went to the bunk building with the rest; may be he was already in his room? Everyone except for me went straight to Po's room and Mantis knocked. No answer. He opened the door a little and peeked inside, 'he's not in here either.'

'Let's call it a day guys. Po will be back tomorrow'. Viper reassured everyone.

I had been lingering outside my door; I sighed and went in. Things were quiet without the panda around…. Wait a minute, was I actually missing him? That was strange, because I don't remember _missing_ anyone before. Not even Shifu, who had to be away from the palace on many missions and errands before. He was my father substitute and I should have missed him but I hadn't, I suppose all the training had kept my mind off things, or may be because I was not close enough to him to miss him. My thoughts turned to my father, my master. True he had adopted me and given me a home. But he had never considered me as his daughter. I had always longed for a parent, someone I could turn to when I needed comfort or when I was in doubt about anything in life. I didn't really want any comfort, I _needed_ it. To know that you had someone who wanted you to be safe and happy must be a wonderful feeling. Shifu did want us all to be safe and happy but his cold indifferent composure kept him far from being a true parent. I knew that he had himself stayed far from it and I also knew the reason, but that knowledge didn't comfort me.

Po had a moment of insecurity and he had gone home immediately. His father was there to comfort him. I envied him for that, but I couldn't blame him. Everyone needed a parent. Now that my thoughts had returned to the panda I felt a little comforted…

Po…. I sighed again

His kung fu skills were still elementary, but that did not stop me from starting to consider him as a safe harbor. It must be the child in him. All the small things that he did brought great joy to everyone. . to me. I was the kind of person who had not acknowledged a joke before. But his jokes are always so simple yet hilarious with a hint of innocence in them they never failed to touch my heart.

With a tiny smile on my sad face I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Author's note: That was short. Reviews please.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

We arrived at the training hall to find Po already working on his training session. He looked like he was in here for the greater part of an hour. He looked fine to me. No trace of the scared or vulnerable looks from the previous day. May be he forgotten about it, or already solved whatever it was. He was never the one to be grumpy or depressed for long, and that's a part of him I'd always liked and admired.

On hearing us enter he turned around and gave us a quick wide smile before turning back to the wooden dummy in the obstacle course. I gave him a tiny smile but he'd already turned around. He was back to as normal as he always was. Well that was a relief. We started training.

The doors burst open and a palace pig hurried in with the message that Shifu had summoned them outside. They walked out to find their Master standing near the palace gates.

He had his back to us. I saw a faint gilt of gold lying on the ground close to his feet, as we approached him. I recognized it to be a scroll fastening thread. Shifu was reading a scroll. He didn't turn around as we came and stood behind him.

'Are you familiar with the Master of Gongmen city?' He was asking Po. The rest of us were familiar with all the Masters. But Po, being a fan of Kung fu from childhood had almost equal knowledge about it as the rest of us. Shifu sounded quite serious.

'Master Thundering Rhino?' He answered immediately.

'Yes' Shifu said still reading the scroll. He looked very shocked and perturbed.

But being Po, he didn't stop there, 'Son of legendary Flying Rhino?' with the wondering look on his face that he wears every time he talks about any famous Kung fu trivia.

'Yes' Shifu sounded a little irked.

'The slayer of the ten thousand serpents in the Valley of Woh?' continued animatedly, glancing at the scroll which Shifu had just given him.

'He's dead' Shifu stated in a hard voice.

'Whoa!' said Po. And looked back at the scroll; I leaned to take a look at it too. I just spared it a glance as I didn't have the patience to read any official formal letter about the murder of one of my fellow Masters.

'Tha-tha-tha-that's impossible' stuttered Crane.

'Rhino's horn defense is impervious to any technique' I reminded Shifu with a wave of both my arms in a dismissive way as I mentally dismissed the idea of the mighty Master Rhino being killed, following him as he walked away from us outside the gate and towards the stairs.

'It was no technique…..,' my eyes widened. If a kung fu move didn't kill him then what did? '…..Lord Shen has created a weapon. One that breaths fire and spits metal' he said as he kept walking.

He stopped and turned around to look at us with a frown on his face. 'Unless he is stopped this could be the end of Kung fu!' he said with an authoritative tap of his staff on the ground.

My ears flattened slightly and with wide eyes I realized the magnitude of the problem as I stared at Shifu's tormented face.

'But I just _got_ kung fu,' argued Po.

'And now, you must save it!' ordered Shifu with another bang of his staff. He suddenly pointed his staff to the west and said 'Go! Destroy this weapon and bring lord Shen to justice!' in a loud voice that had an electrical power to it. It never failed us to fill us with determination to bring down the evil and prove ourselves to our Master. We were already running before he could finish his sentence.

We were half way down the stairs when I realized that Po was missing. 'Where's the dragon warrior?' I asked slowing down. I referred him as the 'Dragon Warrior' now and then so as to remind everyone that he is the dragon warrior now. If I had been would be honest to myself then I'd have realized that I was doing so to remind myself and not anyone else. Thinking of him as the dragon warrior made him a little less familiar and a much more official and real Kung fu Master. I knew what he was, but some part of me, may be my subconscious, still refused to accept that. Because of this I felt a little guilt and this guilt must have made me friendlier towards the Panda. Po did not deserve cold shoulder from the Master he most admired just because of my issues.

'I heard him talking to Shifu when we left, may be he's asking for instructions..' said Viper guessing correctly because Po soon caught up with us, bouncing most of the stairs and muttering something about 'Inner Peace'.

We ran in silence with Po still muttering 'inner peace' over and over again. I was wondering what kind of parting instructions Shifu had given him.

The villagers cheered on us as we crossed the tiny bridge that's built over a stream.

'Inner peace-Inner peace-Inner peace... phew. Peace on!'

'Oh Po?' said a loud voice. Po skidded to an unsteady halt. I almost ran in to him wondering what the matter was.

'Oh Po. I got you a travel pack!' a wicker backpack was walking towards us on two goose legs or that's what it appeared like. It walked up to us and dropped down on the ground, the items spilling and rolling out of it, and revealed Mr. Ping, Po's dad who had been actually carrying the basket.

'I packed you for weeks; cookies, buns, vegetables….' He said, tossing everything back into the back pack as we all looked down at the things in surprise, my mouth slightly open; I'd never heard of a travel pack on a rescue mission, '….and I even packed all your action figures,' he continued, picking up two little wooden dolls in both his wings and playing with them as the kids in the valley do. 'See!' he said as he stopped playing and lifted up his left wing. To my surprise and slight shock it was an action figure of Master Tigress!

Monkey took one look at it pointed, at a finger at Po and started laughing. I looked at Po with my eyebrows raised questioningly, waiting for his response. Po stole an embarrassed glance at me and seeing me look right at him, he tried to act cool.

'Oh!' he said in a would be calm voice, '…Ah… hey! I don't know what those are…ha ha, never seem 'em before in my life 'he said turning with nervour casualness to look at me. I snapped lightly at monkey's raised paw, hinting him to stop making fun of Po and indirectly, me. I walked away from Po. Monkey had stopped laughing as he had seen the look on my face. The five followed me.

Soon as Po thought I was out of earshot he lowered his voice and complained 'Dad! You got scratches on my tigress!' May be he had forgotten at the moment that I had more sensitive ears than the rest. I slightly turned around to look at him. He was bending down and looking concernedly at the action figure which he was now holding in both his paw. He was worried about the scratches on _my _action figure! I don'tknow why but that sounded cute. I could make out by his tone that mine was his favorite. A small smile came to my lips as I imagined Po playing with my action figure.

I hung on to every word from Po and his dad.

'I also packed our paintings of our best time together, just in case you get lonely. That's me and you making noodles. That's me and you _eating _noodles and that's me giving you a piggyback ride….' I was itching to take a peek at those snaps especially the piggyback ride one. '….how cute. On second thought I'll hang on to this one.' There was sadness beneath Mr. Ping's jovial voice.

'Hey.. a.. they'r waiting for me..' Po kindly reminded his dad.

'Of course, of course. You have a job to do. Far from home, in a strange city filled with strange people and strange noodles, facing horrible danger from which you might never _return_! Don't go Po..!' he pleaded.

'I gotta go. I'm the Dragon Warrior, its kinda my job to save Kung fu.' He reasoned with the old concerned goose. 'And if I don't, what am I?' he asked more to himself. 'You're my son!' his dad answered immediately.' There was silence. 'Right?' Mr. Ping asked uncertainly.

Their conversation was saddening me. I interrupted them as if I'd not heard them talk at all, 'Po, its time'.

'Uh.. Goodbye.' He said to his father, heaved the travel pack onto his shoulder and started walking. Po had a sad look on his face. I felt sorry for the old goose who was looking longingly at his son. 'Don't worry Mr. Ping, he'll be back before you can say noodles' I tried to comfort him with a smile before turning around to join the others.

It must be really hard for him to think that he was seeing his son for the last time.

I faintly heard him say a single word, 'noodles.'

We started our journey westwards.


	5. Chapter 5

**The journey**

"All right guys lets go.. yeah!"

we were running through the mountain cliffs...

"yeaaaaaaaaaah...

yeah.. ya. yeaaah" we couldn't make out what his words were.. he was so tired..

My thoughts went to Gongmen city. Lord Shen must be doing every preparation he could to destroy Kung fu. I wondered what might his weapon be. what could be so powerful that it could destroy Kung fu.

Pretty soon it started to snow. I could feel the cold flakes of ice getting in between my nails and melting wetly there against my warmth.

Po was rolling in the snow next to me as we ran. I was not sure whether he was rolling for fun or had lost control. his tummy was making bouncing noises every time he hit the soft snow. His stomach was giving him excellent padding. He was also screaming.

The snow had stopped now and it was pleasantly warm now.

We were now crossing a piece of land that was rocky.

Po was practicing techniques with a bamboo pole as we walked. he would be so tired at one time and so energetic the next moment it was a real surprise.

We were pretty close to the city now.

We had travelled for two day now and this was the third day.

We reached the shore of the river which was supposed to be crossed if we had to reach Gongmen city.

We hired a boat and promising to return it on two to three days' time on our return journey.

We got into boat and set sail. Crane knew all about sailing a boat.

We would be in the city by morning


End file.
